Lynnwood first responders to the rescue as COVID forces ‘Make a Wish’ delay

Neighbors came out of their homes and lined 64 Avenue West in Lynnwood on Tuesday as fire engines, trucks, ambulances, and police cars slowly rolled by in a special ‘Make a Wish’ parade for Eli Kincaid, a 3-year-old boy diagnosed with a rare, but fatal genetic disorder known as Alexander’s Disease when he was just 18 months old.
“Alexander’s is a rare genetic disorder that affects a gene in the brain that makes him overproduce a certain kind of protein, which attacks the lining of the nerves,” Eli’s dad Tyler Kincaid explained. “So kind of like ALS, it shuts everything down over time and they eventually pass away.”
The disease gets progressively worse as children get older. Kincaid says for now, at 3 years old with slightly delayed development, Eli is doing OK, with medicine to manage seizures that allow him to have good days like Tuesday. But without a cure, by the time Eli is 10 he is expected to be in a wheelchair, before the disease turns fatal in his teens.
“It affects about one in a million kids. So it’s super rare. We’ve been going to the children’s hospital in Philadelphia once a year as part of a study, there’s actually a clinical trial, it’s ready to get started. But this whole thing [pandemic] has delayed that,” Kincaid said.
The clinical trial isn’t the only thing for Eli and his family on hold due to the pandemic.
“He was supposed to have his ‘Make a Wish’ trip to Disney World in June